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| I'm seeing things. It's a mirage... |
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| There's nothing there... |
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| There's nothing... |
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| There... |
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| A few of the other figures I got from Mike. They're painted better than I paint them. |
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| Some of the other figures from the RAFM Dunwich Horror set. Gives an idea of the size of the Horror! Again, all figures were painted when Mike sent them. |
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| 3 lobster/crab boats and 2 steam drifters. 20mm figures fit in quite well. |
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| For future models I'll make the wheelhouse about half as long - it tends to over dominate at the moment. |
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| The steam trawler looks good. If I ever decided to make a more detailed model I would have to make it a bit longer to fit a crane in front of the wheelhouse, other than that it looks fine. |
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| This picture shows two of the boats with 25mm crews - as can be seen they don't really do the job - 20mm or smaller is their limit. |
One thing about this is little project is that it demonstrates the differences between just going ahead and making things without planning and actually thinking things through. Differences between these and future models:
I'll make and paint them in modular form rather than make them in one. Examples would be for painting superstructures, for instance.
For some reason I forgot about the decking I'd made up for the tealight ironclads - the decking sheets would be ideal for these.
Possibly put card facings on the superstructures? - the balsa I'm using is generally quite coarse and doesn't file/sandpaper down well. It tends to just fray!
Overall assessment? The boats are quick and easy to make. They fill a gap well and have proved well worth the effort.
No, not casting. Last couple of days the shed has been a bit hot:(:
The house was cooler so I thought 'Got a 20mm fishing port set up with no fishing boats'.
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| So about half ten this morning I started looking up on the internet rough designs for lobster/crabbing/shrimping boats, quickly (and roughly!) put together 3 boats. Wheelhouse a bit big, otherwise look OK. |
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| I have slightly rejigged 'Dunwich' , including making a couple of card fisherman's sheds a few days ago - the green ones and big grey one with orange roof. Boats look about right. |
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| Undercoated them with grey and thought 'really should have some bigger boats to go with them'. Looked up steam drifters and roughed out a couple. |
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| Got them finished and undercoated. Then started on the painwork. I'm using craft paints - the white especially has very little covering ability - so going to take a few coats. I'll get more done when the paint has dried. |
So from initially thinking 'too hot to cast, what will I do today' to having a half painted fishing fleet - little under 6 hours. OK, they're all very rough and I should have spent a lot of time sanding stuff down - as opposed to not bothering :( - but overall not a bad days work.
And posted within six and a half hours of starting!
Been messing about with this on and off for the last few days and finally decided this would be the best set up to most closely mimic actual Dunwich - though still very much an impression of the place rather than an accurate model!
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| This is a view from the beach down the length of the village. Attempts to place the village along the short edge of the table didn't work - not enough room - so this was the obvious best option. |
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| This is the village from the church down the street towards the sea. The sea is on the table, honest. You can even see a little bit of it in the top left hand corner. Likewise, the sea wall/flood defences. I simply put a row of little business card boxes under mat across the beach. In the photo they just all merge in. |
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| A picture of the whole table including the sea! Building models are all 1/87th scale which makes it awkward as far as cars go - don't have much that small and larger scale ones don't look right! |
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| Another view down the table. One option on this would be to move the wood forward a bit. In an actual game I think I'll take out the sea wall - doesn't add anything to any scenarios. |
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| The picture of the car park shows why the cars are too big! The few smaller scale ones I have in the background are much better. The car park itself I would probably 'lose' in an actual set up. Possibly a line of fisherman's huts would be better - I'm working on them at the moment! |
On page 84 of The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia there is a comment 'Lovecraft found the name Dunwich' in Arthur Machen's novel N, according to Robert M. Price. It refers to an actual town in Great Britain that the sea washed away.'
Just got back from a visit there...
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| This is still an issue today... sign on edge of carpark showing the marsh/heath. |
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| This is a model in the museum (worth a visit!) showing how much of the area has been lost since the storms of the 1280s onwards.. The area is still losing about a metre a year! The yellow dotted line shows the current shoreline - the original town used to be a major seaport with a population of about 3,000. That red outlined bubble is supposed to show the current location of the museum - it's actually a bit further up. |
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| So this is the view over the car park with the village in the back ground - you can just see the top of the church's tower at the right end of the village. The marsh is mainly to the right. |
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| A view of the marsh from a few yards away from the previous picture. It's actually very dry at the moment, doesn't look a bit like a marsh! |
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| Poster of the marshes and forest - the town/village is off-map at the bottom. |
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| OK. leave the car park, basically turn the corner and there's the village. First in view is the local, The Ship. The road through the village is straight, no bends. You can see the line of houses on one side of the road; they're close enough together for me to describe it as a terrace. |
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| The other side of the road to the terrace looks like this... the hedge continues all the way down with a few openings where a house has been built behind it! |
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| The museum. Well worth a visit! |
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| View of the terrace (must keep stating that is my description!) from the museum to the Ship. |
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| After the terrace there is a stretch containing detached houses - there are a few on each side of the road. Note the hedges! |
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| To the 'modern' St. James church - could really do the entire blog on this but... |
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| Other side of the church. That 'monument' in the foreground is the transplanted remains of a church that fell into the sea at the beginning of the 20th Century! |
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| There is also the remains of a leper hospital chapel in the churchyard, the current church being built on the site of the hospital - this being because the long gone leper hospital had been originally way outside the village limits! |
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| Then there are a Commonwealth War Graves area and cenotaph - a minor road turns off to the left at this point. |
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| So a wargames setup would look something like this - very simplified and not completely accurate but a good impression. For wargames purpose, perhaps move the wood further forward? |
Lovecraft type scenarios? Drowned villagers or lepers coming from the sea? Possibly following a flood that breaks through the sea wall? Or the drowned village being taken over by Batrachians and some divers find them? Or.....?
Plus you can see Sizewell B nuclear power station from the beach - so gives even more possibilities.
